NBA Season 2021-22

[Moranis]

Tanking isn't really an issue.  A couple of bad teams are a bit worse every year.  Who cares?  Playoff level teams don't tank.  All of this talk to fix something that isn't an issue which will create so many more issues.

[BitterJim]

I don’t know what the solution is, but wish the league would do something about this end of season nonsense. The hawks thunder game is not an nba game. 63-33 hawks and okc has shut down sga for the second straight season. Rockets kings would at least be interesting to see a few young guys but fox, sabonis, Gordon, Schroeder, wood, sengun and of course wall just for fun. A few of these must be actually injured, but obviously on the whole there are a lot of shanigans. Do season ticket holders just build this in expecting the last 7 games to be trash? (I’ve been considering nuggets cause I live here)

It makes for a horrific product, but I really don’t know how to address it.

Get rid of the draft. Gets rid of incentive for tanking.

That would just screw over teams in less desirable markets. If you want to keep things fair and get rid of tanking forever, implement the wheel

[Who]

I don’t know what the solution is, but wish the league would do something about this end of season nonsense. The hawks thunder game is not an nba game. 63-33 hawks and okc has shut down sga for the second straight season. Rockets kings would at least be interesting to see a few young guys but fox, sabonis, Gordon, Schroeder, wood, sengun and of course wall just for fun. A few of these must be actually injured, but obviously on the whole there are a lot of shanigans. Do season ticket holders just build this in expecting the last 7 games to be trash? (I’ve been considering nuggets cause I live here)

It makes for a horrific product, but I really don’t know how to address it.

Get rid of the draft. Gets rid of incentive for tanking.

That would just screw over teams in less desirable markets. If you want to keep things fair and get rid of tanking forever, implement the wheel

No it wouldn't. Getting rid of the salary cap would screw over small markets. Getting rid of the draft is an extension of the current free agent system.

If you are a young player and Memphis offers you $30mil per year for 4 years ($120mil) or Los Angeles offers you $5mil per year for 4 years ($20mil), where are you going to go?

The vast majority will go for the money. The odd one will not. Just as we see in the current free agency system.


----------------

Edit: Sorry, I realized more initial post said to get rid of free agency but not rookie scale contracts as well. Both need to go. You are right - getting rid of the draft but not rookie scale contracts would screw over small markets.

Rookie scale contracts only came into existence in the 90s after rookies would hold out through the summer, training camp and sometimes early season games ... because that was their only negotiating hand to play because the draft forced them into negotiating with only one team.

This in turn forced teams to either pay over the odds for the rookie (especially with no max salary for individual players in the league at that time) or else lose their high draft pick for no compensation. So rookie contracts skyrocketed.

The league freaked out and wanted rookie scale contracts to avoid holdouts and skyrocketing wages.

Get rid of the draft. Get rid of rookie scale contracts. It also fixes these issues while allowing rookies to earn a market based contract (vast majority are underpaid) and allowing them to choose where they want to work and live (just as everyone else does).

It is fairer for the players and it is better for teams who are well managed because it gives more advantages to well run teams and less advantages to teams who hire bad management and leave them in place for years / decades because the system creates so many rewards for failures.

Screw that. Stop rewarding failure.

[Phantom255x]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

[Goldstar88]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

[SparzWizard]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

Well I hope the Celtics can win without JB in Toronto, and defend home court very well so they won't have to win there twice. If the C's play the Raptors.

[Celtics2021]

I don’t know what the solution is, but wish the league would do something about this end of season nonsense. The hawks thunder game is not an nba game. 63-33 hawks and okc has shut down sga for the second straight season. Rockets kings would at least be interesting to see a few young guys but fox, sabonis, Gordon, Schroeder, wood, sengun and of course wall just for fun. A few of these must be actually injured, but obviously on the whole there are a lot of shanigans. Do season ticket holders just build this in expecting the last 7 games to be trash? (I’ve been considering nuggets cause I live here)

It makes for a horrific product, but I really don’t know how to address it.

Get rid of the draft. Gets rid of incentive for tanking.

My idea is the reverse draft. You have the lotto but the team with the best record in the lotto gets the top pick and so on. Makes all the teams play hard until the end.

It actually would have a very perverse effect for teams in the 8-10 range.  Right now a mediocre team in the 8-10 range is faced with the choice of getting a pick in the 12-14 range and low lottery odds, or get a playoff berth and pick in the 15-16 range (so only a couple of spots worse).  The incentive is very much for those teams to try to win, because the difference in picks is relatively small, and the playoffs are worth it.  However, if you're now giving the team that finishes 9th the best lottery odds and a guaranteed top 5 pick, teams at the edge of playoff contention will be incentivized to lose, because getting that top pick is preferable to a first round playoff exit.

If you wanted to alter the draft, you could make it so that all 14 picks given to teams that miss the playoffs were available in the lottery, and each team has an equal chance for a given draft position.  That would lessen the tanking incentive, but also lessen the incentive described above (although it would still be more present than it is today).  It won't stop losing teams from benching their best players at the end of the year to prevent injury, nor cycling through G-Leaguers to find the ones that can play in the NBA, because those decisions have value to teams outside of getting a draft pick.  But it will reduce the value of those decisions.

[Roy H.]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

If true, so much for JB being the intellectual and intelligent one of the bunch. 

[Celtics2021]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

I’m not sure that there’s actually much evidence for this, unless anything new has come up?  It seems to all go back to his quote at the press conference in October where he essentially said it’s someone’s personal decision whether or not to vaccinate, and this quote wasn’t even in response to a question about whether he personally was vaccinated.

What we do know is the two players who publicly disavows vaccines, Dennis Schröder and Josh Richardson, have been traded away.

[Donoghus]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

I’m not sure that there’s actually much evidence for this, unless anything new has come up?  It seems to all go back to his quote at the press conference in October where he essentially said it’s someone’s personal decision whether or not to vaccinate, and this quote wasn’t even in response to a question about whether he personally was vaccinated.

What we do know is the two players who publicly disavows vaccines, Dennis Schröder and Josh Richardson, have been traded away.

We have this from back in October. 

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2021/10/payton-pritchard-likely-broke-his-nose-celtics-guard-will-travel-back-to-boston-for-evaluation.html

Key paragraph here.

Boston may also be without big man Al Horford for the team’s regular season opener as he awaits clearance from the NBA health and safety protocols after a positive COVID-19 test earlier this week. Jaylen Brown is expected to be cleared in time to play next Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19 last Friday. League sources indicated to MassLive.com that both Horford and Brown suffered breakthrough cases and are vaccinated.

Plus you had Udoka at the presser last week after the Wolves game that everyone who was healthy would be available for the Toronto game.

[JohnBoy65]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

If true, so much for JB being the intellectual and intelligent one of the bunch.

Roy - I'm disappointed in this response. You've just implied that if Jaylen isn't vaccinated he can't be "intellectual or intelligent'. I've read the science, and I trust my DR. I chose to get vaccinated in boosted, but I don't think it's fair to use the words you did against someone who chose not to.

[Goldstar88]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

I’m not sure that there’s actually much evidence for this, unless anything new has come up?  It seems to all go back to his quote at the press conference in October where he essentially said it’s someone’s personal decision whether or not to vaccinate, and this quote wasn’t even in response to a question about whether he personally was vaccinated.

What we do know is the two players who publicly disavows vaccines, Dennis Schröder and Josh Richardson, have been traded away.

It hasn’t been confirmed, but it sounds like he might not be.

When asked directly within the past 24 hours if their teams are fully vaccinated, both the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers declined to comment to ESPN -- opening the possibility that both teams could potentially be missing players in road games of a first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors.

Sources told ESPN that Williams is vaccinated. Tatum said on Celtics media day that he was vaccinated, but added that no one should be judged for choosing otherwise.

"I mean, it's your own decision," Tatum said. "I fully understand the concerns of those who aren't vaccinated that don't want to, and I understand the people like myself that did. It's your own personal health and your reason. Nobody should be judged one way or the other, whatever their decision is."

Brown at that time said the vaccine was a personal choice.

"I have my own thoughts about it but I respect my teammates' decisions and things like that," Brown said. "I know everybody has their own opinion about it but I think it's a personal choice."

[Roy H.]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

If true, so much for JB being the intellectual and intelligent one of the bunch.

Roy - I'm disappointed in this response. You've just implied that if Jaylen isn't vaccinated he can't be "intellectual or intelligent'. I've read the science, and I trust my DR. I chose to get vaccinated in boosted, but I don't think it's fair to use the words you did against someone who chose not to.

You’re entitled to your opinion.  I think NBA players who didn’t get vaccinated are morons.

[Phantom255x]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

If true, so much for JB being the intellectual and intelligent one of the bunch.

Roy - I'm disappointed in this response. You've just implied that if Jaylen isn't vaccinated he can't be "intellectual or intelligent'. I've read the science, and I trust my DR. I chose to get vaccinated in boosted, but I don't think it's fair to use the words you did against someone who chose not to.

You’re entitled to your opinion.  I think NBA players who didn’t get vaccinated are morons.

Personally, I believe everyone should get vaccinated as well, but yeah I also think that's kind of a strong thing to say/imply. 

But as you rightfully said, everyone has their opinions.

[Roy H.]

There's no way BKN is losing to Cleveland in the play-in tournament. So honestly, if not #1 I'm fine with the C's being #4. Face Chicago with HCA first round, then go up against Miami or the 8 seed (which wouldn't be BKN since they'd be the 7 seed). We avoid PHI/MIL as well that way until the ECF.

I do not feel good about playing Chicago without Rob Williams. That looks a dangerous series to me.

Rob Williams is the cushion, the margin for error, for Boston that makes them comfortable against Chicago. Without Rob Williams, I see that series as uncomfortably close.

Either way I still feel way better about facing Toronto or Chicago round 1 than Brooklyn without Timelord

It’s starting to sound like Jaylen Brown may not be vaccinated, so facing Toronto could be a problem.

If true, so much for JB being the intellectual and intelligent one of the bunch.

Roy - I'm disappointed in this response. You've just implied that if Jaylen isn't vaccinated he can't be "intellectual or intelligent'. I've read the science, and I trust my DR. I chose to get vaccinated in boosted, but I don't think it's fair to use the words you did against someone who chose not to.

You’re entitled to your opinion.  I think NBA players who didn’t get vaccinated are morons.

Personally, I believe everyone should get vaccinated as well, but yeah I also think that's kind of a strong thing to say/imply. 

But as you rightfully said, everyone has their opinions.

I mean, what else do you call people who knowingly and willingly exposed themselves, their families, their teammates and the general public to a life-threatening disease?

Its not like these guys were social distancing.  They’re in large cities, frequently gathering in public. 

The omicron variant isn’t a big deal, but NBA players not getting vaccinated during Delta?  Morons.  If that particular shoe fits JB, it doesn’t change my opinion.